If only we were smarter...

Hi!

I've found myself saying this a lot in the past few days. Taryn and I have a had a blast exploring HK but we haven't really thought much about what we were doing or made any sort of a plan. That really hasn't resulted in anything unfortunate happening save losing a bit of time.

We woke up on Sunday ready to go. Taryn was going to spend most of the day out exploring with me and put off studying until later that evening (I'm such a good influence on my sister) and we hit the hills early. We quickly made our way down to the Central MRT station (essentially the subway) and were soon on the line bound for Lantau Island. Lantau Island is actually bigger than HK Island and one of the small islands just off the coast was turned into the airport. So I had been out here the previous day when I flew in and will be back out here again tomorrow when I fly out. Why we found ourselves making that journey so many time, I haven't a clue but that was the first time we both said in unison, "if only we were smarter". Poor planning aside, we had a grand old time. Our itinaray for the day was to climb the second highest mountain in HK and visit the largest outdoor seated bronze Buddha statue in the world. We couldn't help but notice all the qualifiers they attached to this statue. I quess they just really wanted to be the biggest in world for something. We caught a bus from the MRT station out to the Buddha which was situated on a hill top. As we approached the Buddha you could see it up on the hill. It really was big. The Buddha didn't open until 10 and so we climbed the mountain first. It was a pretty much uphill for about 2 km. We were blessed with a cool breeze and a clouds which misted on us while we climbed. This we appreciated greatly while we were climbing but were hoping would promptly vanish once we reached the summit. What? Do you blame us for hoping we could have the best of both worlds? Anyway, the Weather Gods complied. We summited and the view cleared up. We were able to see the airport from our vantage point as well as a bunch of the outlying islands. I had wanted to see the airport from above because the airport is shaped like a giant airplane. We came back down the mountain and checked out the largest outdoor seated Buddha in the world. It was only recently built (maybe 10 year ago) so is relatively new when it comes to Buddhas. It's claim to fame (outside of being the largest outdoor seated bronze Buddha in the world) is that it has a very important Buddha relic. The allow you to view the relic which is very different from temples here in Thailand. Normally the relic is buried underneath a chedi and is inaccessible. Here it was prominently displayed. Taryn's motivation for coming out here was that they had a really good vegetarian lunch at the monastery. You could buy a ticket for the Buddha and lunch and end up saving a few bucks so we did that and ate our vegetarian lunch. We then made out way to the far end of the island. We came from one side and decided that we would go back via the other side and the ferry. We took the bus and then hopped onto the ferry. We had to wait for a few minutes for the ferry and so we sat down on some benches near a beach. There were two things that stood out while we were sitting there. First, there were gigantic statues of ants along the path. Now, I don't know how people in Hong Kong feel about ants, but they are not something that I generally want to be a part of my beach going experience. So why there were giant ant statues at the beach I haven't a clue. Second, as we sat their, people constantly were passing by looking as if they were going to the beach. However, as we looked at the beach it didn't seem to fill up. We have no idea where they went? They just seemed to disappear. We hoped on the ferry and were back in HK in no time. It had been a long day and Taryn needed to study so we headed back to Taryn's place for a study session. I hung out for a while and then I was off to explore. I planned to check out a few places before it got dark and then explore the city at night with all the lights. But the first order of business was food. I was pretty hungry and as I mentioned this to Taryn, she told me about a really good kebab place and I was sold instantly. I grabbed kebab and was off walking. It was Sunday and the downtown area was packed. One of the reasons, is of course, that it is a major city on a Sunday evening. The other is that Sunday is usually the only day off for many of the Filipino maids and nanny's and so they all gather around downtown to chat and enjoy themselves on their day off. They'll sit in almost every corner of this part of the city and will bring things to sit on, food, games etc. and simply hang out with a group of their friends. They do this every Sunday and they do it all day long. So after finding my way through the crowds, I headed towards the pier. One of the unique things about Hong Kong is the daily lights and laser show that takes place around Hong Kong Harbor. There are lasers and lights placed on many of the different buildings and they are coordinated and it supposedly makes for a neat show. I was more captured by the moon rising over the skyscrapers. The show was neat, but the full moon was far more impressive and provided an interesting contrast as it rose up over the towering buildings of downtown Hong Kong. I headed back, but before jumping on the bus to take me up the hill to Taryn's, I grabbed her the kebab she requested for dinner (what a nice brother I am) and of course another one for me. And that brought to an end my second day in Hong Kong.